Beaux Arts Trio ... Friday, October 21, 1983
Abstract
"The juxtaposition of piano trios by Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Smetana on tonight's program provides an opportunity to reflect on the contrasting lifestyles of composers in history. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the role of the composer in society underwent a fundamental evolution, which may be characterized generally as a change from pragmatic servant to rather idealistic free agent. This transformation was, of course, strongly affected by an equally striking change in the nature of the music consumer. The relatively small number of aristocratic connoisseurs who sustained composers in the old order was augmented and overwhelmed by the more robust, if less refined, mass audience with middle-class values that supported concert life in the new century. The altered responsibility of the composer was a mixed blessing. Appealing to a large, somewhat diversified audience was a much different proposition than giving certain pleasure to a single patron. And yet the challenge had a liberating effect. Composers, especially after Beethoven, tended to become much more self-indulgent. Creating art not for a specific patron, not for specific musicians, not for a specific occasion, but for ideal performers and listeners--and, in effect, for posterity--entered the composer's realm. The circumstances surrounding the music-making of Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Smetana illustrate these observations quite well."--Program notes.
Table of Contents
Program: Trio in A Major, H. XV/18 / Franz Joseph Haydn -- Trio in G Minor, Op 15 / Bedrich Smetana -- Trio in D Minor, Op. 49 / Felix Mendelssohn. Includes: Beaux Arts Trio, Manahem Pressler, Isidore Cohen, Bernard Greenhouse, Biographies ; Notes by Michael Budds ; Upcoming Events ; Audience Preference Poll